Another Seattle question
 

How bad is it getting in and out of downtown for work?

Say here: 5303 Shilshole Ave. N.W. Seattle, WA

Seattle is widely acknowledged as having some of the worst traffic in the nation. We have long since outgrown the carrying capacity of our roads and freeways. With all the water around, there is no place to put any more roads, so it's only going to continue to get worse.

Depends on where you live. I've never lived there but I have visited many times. I always stayed at my sisters who lives in Queen Anne neighborhood. She works in the heart of downtown - it's only a couple of miles which she walks about 50% of the year. Driving can take 25 minutes during rush hour.

On a good day. 15 minutes
Double that for a bad day.

It's a pretty easy commute. You wouldn't want to walk it, but it's a nice bike ride to downtown. And you're about 3 miles from John Walker's.

Traffic sux, but that address is so close to downtown that it wouldn't be a problem. FWIW, I regard that as a nice area of town.

So is the address I posted considered downtown? Is it any easier to get in and out of?

Maybe I should put this another way. If I worked here: 5303 Shilshole Ave. N.W. how hard will it be to get to? Would it be better if I lived north or south of the city? We'd probably be looking north first as that's where my wife's family is.

The address you posted is not "Downtown", it is Ballard. Driving from Ballard to Downtown could be a bear. First, you have to cross Ballard Bridge, which is a draw bridge. It can slow you down for 5 minutes or so. Next, you have 15th Ave. which is somewhat of a speed trap, ranging from 35 mph to 45 mph (it might be 40 mph). Traffic on 15th can be very congested and slow. Once you get Downtown, 15 merges onto Denny Way, and from Denny Way you can turn off onto whatever street you need to get all the way Downtown. Once Downtown, traffic can be pretty bad and the lights are not as synchronized as one would hope. All in all, I would say 15 minutes on a good day, 30 on a not so good day.

Ballard is a nice old neighborhood that has a Scandinavian heritage. It used to have a lot of older people, but recently it has become a younger, more hip area. Prices are going up as well.

The address is not downtown proper. Walker's place, on Greenwood, is a nice area. Near there is the boomtown we call "Greenlake." Finney Ridge would, in my view, be a very nice place to reside but out of my price range fer sher.

Thanks Scott, that helps. So lets pretend I didn't say anything about downtown, :) how hard is Ballard to get to? Is 5 a bear no matter what?

Ballard is a PITA to get in and out of. (Seattle likes poor traffic flow) However, if you bike, there is a nice east/west bike path in and out. If you make it here in the next few month, I'll buy you lunch. Btw, do you have any experience with product development? ....any novel consumer and/or medical product design?

We will all buy you a beer. Indeed, the beloved "74th Street Ale House" is a couple blocks from Walker's. Finest reuben sandwich you will likely ever eat.

Ballard is a nice area of town, but like Scooter said, it can be difficult coming and going since there aren't a lot of roads in and out.
There's plenty of residential in ballard, so living there and avoiding a commute wouldn't be hard, as long as you can afford it.

No development work for me. Strictly hardware and related support, almost completely focused on IBM's AS/400 (iSeries, i5, i). I manage the datacenter for a development lab and support 40+ developers on 30+ logical servers.

Within 10 minutes of Ballard you can find houses ranging from $350K to $6M.

And just so you don't miss MN too much, there's a place about 3 blocks from there that serves Leinenkugel's and deep fried cheese curds....but expect to pay four bucks for the Leinies!!

I have a feeling housing may be the killer. I'll need to have several things fall in to place for something like this to work out, and housing is just one of them.

Lets see... my current place is 3br/4ba, 2800sq-ft, attached 2.5 car garage on 2.5 acres 20 minutes from work. Can I find something like that for oh say; 250k?

No. But your power bill will be Much less. (if that helps)

It might, my current gas and electric bill are 300 a month combined on an 'even-pay' plan.

Sure you could find that around here, about 50 miles east on I-90, but your commute would be shorter if you just fly from MN everyday.:D

ballard is nothing compared to downtown. depends where you commute from. there are back ways with less traffic. a bit far from I-5 though, but not a big deal really.

True. John and others have me convinced that I-5 is last choice. Hwy 99 is much smoother. And if you got a place not more than several miles or so north, then you'd probably use surface streets in relative tranquility compared to I-5 or Hwy 99.

A few years ago, Ballard was a doable option - no more. The Norwegians have all sold out I guess.

I'll let others fill you in on the remaining decent options today - probably near Tacoma! (like the NYC joke - Pennsylvania is the nxt New Jersey).

Be aware that altho Progressive in may ways, Seattle is incredibly regressive in terms of mass transit & traffictransportation in general. They just lost a battle to get rid of or bury Alaska Way (by the waterfront) and make that a park. That is something that SFO and PDX did decades ago. Now, they are enjoying the huge increase in property values from increased amenity where they knocked down the Fwys.

Personally, I would like to see the viaduct removed and replaced with a tunnel. But bear in mind.....I handle labor relations matters on large, public construction projects. Self-interest. That project would be MASSIVELY expensive. But.....it would also make sense. It could give Seattle a waterfront to rival any other in the world.

Yes, Seattle has not invested in enough transportation infrastructure in recent decades. Sound Transit is moving forward on some of the mass transit stuff including and especially "light rail." A friend of mine works in downtown Seattle and lives in Auburn. In my 911, disregarding speed laws, I could make it from downtown to Auburn in a half-hour safely if there were no other cars on the road. She makes that trip, in that time frame (half-hour) every day during rush hour. Trains are good.

I guess I kind of knew the traffic sucked, and the housing was expensive. It is what it is.

Any experience with Trident Seafoods? They're the one's located at the address I listed...

Just that they've been around forever.

Why do we need to (further) impress tourists? Do you want more bunker-fuel burning cruiseships coming to Seattle? As it is now, a few hundred thousand people (per day) get to enjoy the city and waterfront views as they travel along the viaduct--THAT is cool in my book.

btw, the tunnel option turns the battery street tunnel into the steepest road in the city, as it would have to drop hard before getting to the train tunnel. ...of course, Seattle will think they can rip that out too, no doubt.

leiny's and chez curds????

where?

my folks are coming go town next month and they just got done with a family reunion in Green Bay. i havent seen curds out here ever.

Actually, while I agree that it would make for a GREAT tent-city, there are a few waterfronts in say, Hawaii, that would still beat the infrastructure-less Seattle waterfront.

I heard this when you mentioned it the first time, a year or two ago. Spot on, I'd say. I certainly appreciate the view from the 'duct. Indeed, I certainly appreciate many of our views here. I LOVE Seattle deeply. If it were a woman, I would.......nevermind.

But I don't think I could support a deliberately ugly or inconvenient strategy for the specific purpose of dissuading immigrants. Something about spite, and a nose and face.

Perspective. You can't see the Space Needle from Waikiki Beach. Or Mount Rainier. Or Mount Olympus. Or Ballard.

Lets try and focus here... ;) This post is about me getting in and out of downtown. Well, not downtown really but Ballard. And getting in first, as I've just started my search. But during the search I want to know some of what I'd be getting in to. and out of...

Anyway, what were we talking about again?

I live in Lower Queen Ann and work in Magnolia (on the Seattle side, right before the Ballard Bridge)..If I was going to live in Ballard (over the Bridge) and work downtown, I would seriously consider Vallium.

I can see the traffic lines over the bridge, and morning and afternoon traffic sucks.

I looked for houses in Ballard, nothing was less than 250K and most are old and need total restoration..before moving in, or there are the "slap-it up and hope it stays-up" town houses.

However, if you are a Porsche owner, we can fix your car!!!!and we are close to Ballard.
Always a silver lining in any cloud.

So realistically, what kind of money does someone need to make to live in the Ballard area?

I just spent a long weekend there and I hope to never return. IMHO, Seattle traffic is every bit as bad as LA or DC.

While walking around Pike's Place on Friday, the produce there was at least 25% more than anything I've seen even in the gourmet stores in Phoenix. Gas was about $.35 more per gallon than here. The other night we stayed at some friends' house near Belliingham. It was a $750k house, which might have brought that much in a nice neighborhood in NoVA and maybe half that much in Phoenix. I left Anancortes yesterday and it took 45 min. to get to the 5 - a mere 20 miles away. From there to the airport was almost three hours to go about 100 miles. I could not believe the traffic. Just wow. I could never live there, even if I worked from home.

I live in Auburn and work in Seatac. In ideal conditions, the commute is probably about 22 minutes. It virtually never takes me more than 30, and usually it's 25-27. How do I do it? I have alternatives and I look at the traffic report before I leave home or office. With this current question, the Ballard thing, Joel could find a place that allows him to use a similar strategy.

But.....yes, traffic here commonly SUCKS (On Fridays, when my commute was between Tenino and Seatac, there were days when it took me 3.5 hours to get home which was 65 miles!). If I am in Seattle at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon, I will find a place that has good beer and good food. By 6:00 it will probably be clear.

There are quite a few who live cheaply in the parks, loading docks, and doorways off Ballard Ave. :cool:

There are a lot of apartments for rent in Ballard too. Condo's are being built like crazy there. (Urban densification planning w/o parking accommodations = parking cluster-mess)

It's hard to say, w/o knowing what your acceptable accommodation needs are. For you to get an idea on housing check www.windermere.com, or craigslist.org. There seems to be some more affordable houses between 3rd-15th ave NW (east west) and the 4500 to 9000 blocks (north-south) ...not view property, but close to central Ballard, w/o being in the densification zone.

So you're one of those people doing 5 under on the viaduct that I have to weave through every day! Get the fuch outta the way!!!! ;)

:D, yeah, I'm doing 5 under. ...when traffic is doing 15 under. ;)

I think my wife will be pushing to live north, Lynnwood, Everett, maybe even Marysville as that is where her family is. I will be trying to keep a bit of a buffer zone. :D

NOOOOO!

If you are working in Ballard, the furthest I would go north would be Shoreline. (north of 145th-the Seattle city limit, but staying to the west of I-5, west of a Aurora (hwy 99))

Why not buy/rent in Ballard or Fremont (the neighborhood next door)? Ballard is growing like crazy, cool little downtown area. If you live close to the water you will be right by the Burke Gillman trail, a bike/walking trail that acts like a highway for cyclist through the area.

I think Ballard would make a great RE investment.